The clock on Hartley's market hall started to tick again on Saturday morning, after eleven years of silence. Fourteen pupils from Hartley High School repaired it over six months, working every Wednesday after lessons. The clock stopped when its old mechanism broke. The town council said a repair would cost too much, so the hands stayed at ten past four. Last spring, science teacher Diana Okafor asked if her after-school club could try. “I thought the pupils would learn something useful, but I never expected it to work,” she said. The club cleaned or replaced dozens of small parts, and made some of them in the school workshop. A retired clockmaker, Peter Lam, gave advice for free. About three hundred people gathered in the square to hear the bell at noon. “I walked past that clock every day as a child,” said local resident Mary Mitchell. “It feels as if the town has woken up again.” The council has now promised to pay for a check every year. The pupils will keep one small part of the old mechanism for a display at school.